I spoke to a person at BWW HQ -- no the
right person, but a management type who was available to take the call. For this reason, I won't post her name and number.
First off, she was very polite, reasonable and patient.
She said that it
is corporate policy to ban legal carry, but that many of their restaurants are franchises and thus not subject to the rule. That explains Texas, where only one restaurant is corporate-owned.
[
that's true - http://gamma.franconnect.net/ifa/control/franchisorinformation?section=Franchisor&franchisorID=98 - 140 franchise locations, 80 corporate-owned locations]
She further explained that they felt the need to balance people's right to be armed with other patrons' right to go to a bar where there aren't people with guns.
Sigh.
She said that in her experience, most bar/restaurants in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area ban guns.
I don't know what planet whe is on; overwhelmingly, they do not.
She did promise, if I sent her an email, to forward it to the appropriate people, so I'll be doing that.
If some polite persuasion and logic doesn't help, I will report back and start planning the deluge of phone calls and emails.
Thanks to everyone who responded with useful information and suggestions.